Dharmavaram, Anantapur district


Dharmavaram is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal and divisional headquarters of Dharmavaram mandal and Dharmavaram revenue division respectively. The city is known for its handloom silk sarees.
The city is renowned for cotton, silk weaving industries and leather puppets. The city is called as Silk city of Andhra Pradesh.

Etymology

Dharmavaram tank was constructed by Kriyasakthi Odeyar. The name of the city was derived from the name of his mother, Dharmamba.

Geography

Dharmavaram is located at. It has an average elevation of 345 metres.

Demographics

, the town had a population of. The total population constitute, males, females –a sex ratio of 958 females per 1000 males, higher than the national average of 940 per 1000. children are in the age group of 0–6 years, of which are boys and are girls—a sex ratio of 863 girls per 1000 boys. The average literacy rate stands at 71.07% with literates, 44,055 male and 33,509 female, slightly lower than the national average of 73.00%.

Governance

Civic administration

Dharmavaram Municipality was formed on 1 April 1964 as a Grade–III municipality. It is upgraded to Selection Grade and has a jurisdictional area of with 40 election wards. Each ward is represented by a ward member and the ward committee is headed by a chairperson. The present chairperson of the municipality is Beere Gopala Krishna and the commissioner is V. Mallikarjun.hh

Economy

Dharmavaram is a hub for pure silk sarees. The economy of the town is dependent on the weaving industry.
Farmers depend on rain water due to lack of water resources. A major crop in this area is ground nuts.

Transport

The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation operates bus services from Dharmavaram bus station. Dharmavaram Junction railway station is a major railway station located on the Guntakal–Bangalore section and the Dharmavarm–Pakala branch line. There are two trains starting from this station to Vijayawada and Machilipatnam

Education

The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government, aided and private schools of the School Education Department of the state. The medium of instruction followed by different schools are English, Telugu, urdu.